Heaven on Earth: Terminus (Book 1)

Chapter 8: Incongruous (Nate)

Central Park, New York 

The lights glow idly as we walk down one of the desolate wide sweeping paths in Central Park, a breeze carries itself nonchalantly and brushes past me like a distant stranger, I can’t come to terms with all of the events that have happened today, has my life really become a danger zone? Will it ever be the same again? I drift away from Tom and Azalea, who are keeping each other company, and I slump down onto one of the many wooden benches with my head in my hands. They both notice and slip back to join me,

“What’s wrong kid?” Tom asks,

“It’s just...” I look up, “Why do you need me?”

“We can’t exactly leave you here, Nathan.” He replies, “You got attacked twice in a day. You aren’t exactly safe here and you might have more significance than you think.”

“We need you to come back with us.” Azalea adds,

It’s true, Zagan said that he wanted me as well and so did the Harpy, maybe it’s because I’m now an accomplice or maybe Tom’s right, I might be a piece in the puzzle and you know what, it’s pretty damn exciting, I take a deep breath and stand, “Lead the way.” They both follow suit and Tom leads the way along the path.

“I never got to ask you,” Azalea says, walking next to me, “How did you manage to use the bow and arrow?”

“Oh.” I don’t know is what I want to say but it’s not true, “The truth is, my adoptive parents used to take me to archery lessons.”

“Hey, I used to take archery lessons.” Tom adds, clearly listening in to our conversation, “Weird, huh?”

I nod and Azalea asks the question I expected one of them to ask, “You’re adopted?”

“Yeah. My birth parents died in a car crash.” I say, “Don’t they always.” I add sarcastically, I know that was pretty cynical but even though they’re my birth parents, they didn’t raise me up like a normal child, I have a slight resentment towards them for that,

“So you don’t live with your adoptive parents anymore?” She asks,

“No, I left them to go to NYU last month.” I reply, “Alabama’s a pretty boring state.”

“Hey, don’t worry, I’ll ask the Archangels what they can do about your attendance.” Tom says and one of my problems gets crossed out in my head, “So you’re 18 as well, I’m guessing.”

“No, I turn 18 in 3 months.” I say,

“December baby,” He confirms,

“What about you?” I ask,

“October.” He says, “I turn 19 on the 22nd.”

“So do you know where we’re going?” I ask after walking for about 5 minute and I’m incredibly impatient,

“We’re here.” He chimes promptly and he walks in between two benches to go behind a bush and suddenly he’s gone. I step back a bit in astonishment,

“Tom?” I shout,

After a moment of silence, he shouts, “Don’t worry, it’s safe!” I give a sigh of relief and let Azalea go first. We slip behind the bush and notice that the bush is actually here to prevent people from seeing the ugly ledge that goes down to the bank of one of the many lakes in Central Park. Azalea slides down and I follow on. At first, I can’t see Tom but in the corner of my eye, I spot him hauling a row boat onto shore. We both run over to him and I help him the rest of the way.